Audit of school for the deaf challenged

FREDERICK (AP) - Maryland School for the Deaf officials are challenging a state audit that found several improprieties at the Frederick campus last year.

The problems at the taxpayer-funded school included employees using extended lunch breaks to work on supervisor's private properties and lax controls over purchasing in the maintenance department.

The Office of Legislative Audits was prompted by a call to its fraud hot line from a former school employee in March 2003.

It also found that several maintenance department employees used state vehicles for private purposes, borrowed other state equipment and made thousands of dollars in questionable and poorly documented purchases.